http://www.freep.com/story/sports/colleg.../30935071/

When the division were being reset after the semi-pompously named Legends & Leaders were to be retired, Sparty requested to be placed in the West division. Apart from the obvious balancing of the divisions competitively, their primary motivation was they wanted to maintain a strong presence in Chicago. Chicago is IMO the white whale of Midwest recruiting for the B1G. It is the most replete with elite recruits in the Midwest outside of the Buckeye State, however unlike Ohio there is no one team that dominates Chicago recruiting year in and year out.

Notre Dame has been the closest to Chicagoland domination going back several decades as they seemed to get the pick of the litter, but times they are achanging. Notre Dame still gets elite recruits but they come from all over the country and are not concentrated in Chicagoland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Jersey which provided the bulk of their talent when they were good.

Illinois and Northwestern have played under the shadow of the Midwestern powers and for some reason don't seem to be committed to actually winning football games. Illinois, the state flagship, has no excuse to be as consistently terrible as they have been over the last few decades yet remain in a state of mediicority. They will none the less jump up and bite you every decade or so and Northwestern about the same... but neither have had any lasting recruiting success in their own state which explains a huge part of why they suck for long stretches at a time.

Iowa had some success recruiting Chicagoland when Ferentz was winning but that pipe is drying up because everyone knows the only reason he hasn't been fired is because Iowa doesn't want to buy out his contract.

Enter the gritty coaching staff at Michigan State to fill the void. They have proven themselves as excellent developers of talent by turning overlooked recruits into NFL caliber players. Now they have started to get more and more of the upper level recruits into their program. A big focus of their recruiting efforts have centered on owning Chicago and those efforts are being rewarded. D'Antonio even gave a shout out to Chi-town recruits during the B1G media days. One thing is certain IMO... if Sparty can lock down Chicago, they'll remain a football power.

Interesting article... thanks for the link Ron.
Maybe some day our program can reach the elite status of tOSU if this Chicago pipeline continues to develope.

http://www.csnchicago.com/preps/how-mich...ng-chicago

here's a better one

(08-01-2015 08:50 PM)Sparty84 Wrote:  Interesting article... thanks for the link Ron.
Maybe some day our program can reach the elite status of tOSU if this Chicago pipeline continues to develope.

IMO, Sparty is right up there and will remain there as long as Coach D (Ohio native, just sayin') is in East Lansing. Maybe you all don't turn on TV sets like the traditional blue bloods but there is no question that Sparty is elite. At present, the B1G is tOSU Sparty and everybody else. Maybe that gap is closing in Ann Arbor and College Park but for the past 3 years the gap has been huge and the only program in shouting distance has been Wiscy. Looking at only Championships is deceiving, that's like saying Both Ryan isn't an elite coach yet, hogwash. If coach D keeps winning 10+ games a year I don't know how you could argue against him not running an elite program.

One other thought about Chicago recruiting. When you think about it, hitting Chicagoland hard is a very smart move. If you can get 12-15 kids annually from Chicagoland and/or Ohio to supplement the 7-10 you can get in state you have a nice little formula for a top 10 recruiting class every year before you leave the Midwest. The power vacuum in Illinois leaves the state ripe for the plucking so congrats to Coach D and his staff for taking advantage.

Once again... Thanks Ron for the props for Sparty.

I wholeheartedly agree that we are presently playing well. I also agree that tOSU and Sparty are presently our best football representatives in the BIG. I personally would not call Sparty elite in football. To me being called elite implies more than a team doing great things in the present. To me Elite status implies a history of glory. While I am extremely proud of Spartan Football under the guidance of Mark Dantonio I would not give us that status.

I guess my reservations are also from the SPARTAN pavlovian response of wretching every time I here an Arrogant A$$hole from Ann Arbor bloviating about how great mICHIGAN was, is and always will be. I never want to be like that nor do i want the Spartan Nation to be like that. Just as i assume you would never want to be like someone from TSUN.

To me Sparty and Bucky are like cousins in reference to the arrogant ones.

For Northwestern, academics are always a concern. That's why the Wildcats have to be as selective as they are in offering. Cats did pick up 2 decent instate players but have really shined in Indiana (sorry Hoosiers and Boilers) but Evanston is close to the also ripe recruiting grounds of Northern Indiana. Have commits from #7 Smith (QB) & #12 Skowronek (WR) both of Ft Wayne.

Cats have always worked St Louis hard as there are several Private, Catholic & Lutheran HS's in the area and only 1 instate competitor for talent. Have landed #3 Roderick Campbell (CB #17 nationally) from Chaminade Catholic.

But this is definitely MSU's year in metro Chicago.

Recruiting rankings per rivals

The inability of Illinois of lockdown Chicago is their biggest failure.

It is sickening to see 5-star recruits head out of state

(08-06-2015 01:25 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  The inability of Illinois of lockdown Chicago is their biggest failure.

It is sickening to see 5-star recruits head out of state

If any football program needs a rebranding with new uniforms, it is the Illini.